Dr. Peter Levi

Peter Levi is the Director of Conservation Science for The Nature Conservancy’s Wisconsin Chapter (TNC – WI). He is a freshwater ecologist and environmental chemist interested in the ebbs and flows of elements through ecosystems. At TNC, Peter works with colleagues and partners across Wisconsin, the Midwest, and North America to embed sound science into the organization’s conservation and management actions. Peter leads the climate and energy team at TNC – WI, which seeks to accelerate the clean energy transition through projects that minimize impacts on conservation and maximize benefits to communities. In addition, he provides science support and expertise to the land and water management teams in areas of nature-based solutions, freshwater ecosystem restoration, and carbon dynamics.

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Prior to joining TNC, Peter worked in higher education for 20 years. He conducted research on streams, rivers, and lakes in human-dominated landscapes, including urban and agricultural watersheds across the Midwest and abroad. He held faculty and research positions at several institutions, including as Associate Director of the Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland College (Ashland, Wis.), Associate Professor at Drake University (Des Moines, Iowa), and research fellow positions at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Limnology and the Department of Plant Biology at Aarhus University in Denmark.

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Peter serves as the Treasurer for the Society for Freshwater Science, Co-Chair of the Advisory Council for the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts, and City Councilor for the City of Ashland. He has been an affiliated scientist with the Burke Center for Ecosystem Research since its inception in 2025, which is where his office is located as well. He earned his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame and bachelor’s in Biology from Lawrence University.